DETROIT (WJBK) -- On a well kept Detroit block, mowing the lawn on a Tuesday afternoon is nothing out of the ordinary and, sadly, either is what happened next.

Former police chief Stanley Knox was robbed by two black teens

"They stopped and asked if that was Curtis down there. I said, 'Yes.' And then they started walking back towards me. Then they [sped] up and with a gun in his hand," said Stanley Knox.

The two young men were getting ready to rob a former Detroit police chief.

"I was never afraid. I don't know what I was thinking about," he told us.

Did he feel that there was a chance they might shoot him?

"I thought about it at one point, yes."

He wasn't armed, so Knox tried to physically fight the bad guys off and in the process fell back over his lawnmower.

"They pointed the weapon at me and just gently took it off," he said.

With Knox down on the ground, they took what they could see, his gold necklace and gold bracelet, and then took off running between the houses.

Neighbor Althea Roberts arrived home just as police converged.

"It's scary. He's out here cutting his grass. School was still in. They were picking up kids. I guess they went on a field trip. The church parking lot was full of cars, and then you can't be out here and taking care of your lawn and somebody [pulls] a gun on you?"

Nearly a dozen officers responded to this crime of opportunity. One noticed the thieves left one thing behind. In the middle of the driveway, Knox's gold Detroit police chief medallion that apparently had fallen off the chain and has now been taken into evidence.

"They got lucky, though, because they caught him off guard," Roberts said. "I'm pretty sure it could've turned out a lot differently, and I wish it would've."

"Hate for things like that to happen in the city, but it does, every city," said Knox.

Knox was the police chief in the early nineties. He said he got that medallion for his service. At least he'll be able to get that back.

The suspects are described as black men about six feet tall, 175 pounds, around 19 to 20 years old.